LAST PLACE IN THE WORLD
by
Sandpiper
Chapter 4
The Chapters
Easter Sunday dawned bright and clear, but at Runner's Harbor, things were solemn and sad. Frank Hardy stood on the verandah, staring out across the garden still cloaked in its glittering dew, and shivered.
Things had been tense since he'd walked away from his father. He'd ended up just walking, instead of doing what he yearned to do: go to the police station. He shivered again and felt tears prick his eyes. A bullet. Someone shot at his baby brother and his own father didn't want him to do anything.
The sound of a motor sounded extremely loud in the quiet morning. Frank looked out to see a garish red, white and orange minimoke--not much different or bigger than a golf cart--pull haphazardly into the parking lot. The man who got out---Frank took off running to the parking lot, wondering if the helicopter pilot had good news to share.
Frank was breathless by the time he met up with Ladner. "You found something?"
Jimmy Ladner took a deep breath. "I need you to come with me."
A chill swept over Frank. "What?"
"I just...need you to come with me." Ladner placed a cautious hand on Frank's shoulder. "Please."
Frank glanced over at the hotel but saw no one out on the verandah. He gave a jerky nod. "Okay." He got into the minimoke and waited for Ladner to get back on the highway before asking again, "What?"
"I need you to meet someone."
"What?" Frank glared at the man. "If it's not my brother you found or the person who found him, then let me off here."
"Please, listen. I heard about the bullet hole. I think I know what happened."
"Well, good, because I don't." Frank felt the anger swell up inside him. "I thought---"
"There's someone who lives on this island--someone you need to meet. I think then you'll understand." Ladner cleared his throat. "I'm dreadfully sorry."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. My brother---my brother--" Frank couldn't voice his fear, that his brother was really, and truly gone. Not after all the adventures, the dangers..."Let me off."
Ladner pulled onto Highway One and drove faster. "No. You have to meet Harry."
So distracted by his grief and anger, the first name that popped into Frank's mind was impossible. "Harry Potter?"
Ladner gave him a puzzled look. "Who? Harry Leiker. I'm talking about Harry--"
"Leiker." Frank stared at Ladner as memories flooded his mind. "Oh God, even Dad noticed the similarities last year..."
"Last year?" Ladner turned off on a rutted lane that meandered through tall sugarcane, long since dead. Some stalks had bent over and now the old, dead sugarcane looked like it was being blown by a non-existent wind. He jerked the wheel and slammed on the brakes in front of an old, run-down plantation house. He looked at Frank. "Harry went to the U.S. to testify against Corsini. How do you know about the trial?"
"Dad testified too. He met Harry Leiker, brought him by the house because Harry looked so much....like...." Frank stared at Ladner. "Are you telling me someone shot at my brother, thinking he was that--that thief?"
"Sounds like you'd like to call me something much worse."
Frank swung around. He spotted Leiker and felt a shiver as he took in the blond hair and blue eyes. Frank lunged toward Leiker and knocked the older man down. "My brother is dead because of you."
The amused expression on Leiker's face vanished. He stared up at Frank, not even trying to struggle. "What?" He looked over at Jimmy. "What the hell's going on, Jimmy?"
Frank sat up and scrambled away from Harry. "My brother is..."
Harry got to his feet and advanced on Ladner still in the vehicle. "What's going on, James?"
Ladner sighed and explained all that he knew. Leiker went pale beneath his tan and looked over at Frank. "I remember you now. Your father brought me over to the house---"
Harry's voice trailed off as an odd ripple of wind swept over them. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Jimmy gave the skies a nervous look. "What was that?"
"I don't know." Harry looked over at the plantation house and thought there was something odd about it. "Jimmy...."
Jimmy followed Harry's gaze and frowned. "That's odd. You and I finally finished getting all the ivy off the house. I've never seen it grow back that fast."
"Jimmy, that wasn't there five seconds ago." Harry started for the house.
Frank stepped in his way. "Who cares about ivy? My brother is dead because of you."
"That ivy wasn't there five seconds ago. No type of ivy grows that damn fast." Harry sidestepped him and walked into the house.
Not to be ignored, Frank strode in behind him and nearly ran him over since Harry seemed to be frozen in the corridor. Frank saw the house looked like it was coming to pieces. Long strips of wallpaper hung from the walls. In what looked like it might have once been a dining room, the corner of the ceiling was missing.
"James!"
Jimmy Ladner hurried inside and crossed himself. "Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph," he muttered, almost like a prayer. "Harry, we cleaned this all up only months ago."
Harry stared at something that was shoved up against the wall, next to massive carved hall tree. It was brass-bound, with an arched lid. Frank thought it looked just like treasure chests from pirate stories. "Months ago, that wasn't there," said Harry, hoarsely. "God, that wasn't there ten minutes ago."
Frank shook his head. "I don't care where it was--"
Harry spun around and grabbed Frank by the shoulders. He shook Frank just hard enough to make the younger man look at him. "Listen to me. Ten minutes ago, that dining room had a clean floor, a fresh coat of paint on the walls and a fixed ceiling. Ten minutes ago, an old umbrella stand sat right where that chest is. Ten minutes ago, there was no ivy on the outside of this house. Does any of that register in that brain of yours?"
"Harry, stop."
"He has to realize something's happened. Something's happened to change time. Change...." Harry let go of Frank so fast Frank nearly fell. Harry stumbled back until he hit the doorframe leading into an old parlor. "Oh God, no."
Frank frowned and rolled his shoulders. His curiosity overshadowed his mind and he looked around. "All right. How could everything change then? That's impossible."
"No. No." Harry shook his head. "No. I have to go."
"Go where?" asked Ladner, looking confused.
"Jimmy, remember the year I first came out here? Remember the old fisherman? Old Jack?"
Ladner frowned. "Oh, yeah. Didn't you say he lives over on Tortuga now?"
"Technically no one lives on Tortuga, it's uninhabited. But a little over three hundred years ago, it was a happening place--if you were a pirate."
Frank stared at him. "Pirate? Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm going to Tortuga. Jimmy, you're flying me." Harry started up the stairs, careful of where he stepped since the boards had holes in them now.
"I am?" Jimmy shook his head. "Harry..."
"I'm going too."
Jimmy spun around to look at Frank. "No. Your parents would have my hide--"
"I'm going, I don't care if I have to hang onto the struts or something. You can't stop me."
Jimmy Ladner studied Frank for a long moment and then heaved a sigh. "All right. But you're explaining everything to your parents when we return."
Frank looked down at the chest. "So what's in it?"
"I don't know." Ladner cleared his throat. "Doesn't look locked."
Frank crouched down in front of it and saw the older man was right. There was no lock on the hasp. Slowly, he lifted it up and the weak sunshine that filtered inside glinted off of gold and jewels. Frank pushed up the lid until it was propped against the wall. He picked up a gold piece and studied it. It was slightly oval in shape with a curious figure eight on it.
"Put that back."
Frank jumped and looked over his shoulder to see Harry standing there, looking as white as a ghost. "What?"
"That's...." Harry swallowed hard. He knelt down beside Frank and picked up a small ivory statuette of a winged horse barely six inches high and seven inches long. "This was part of a legend...a legendary treasure. I never thought it really existed."
Frank frowned. "What do you mean?"
Harry gave a jerky nod at the chest. "An ancestor of mine was a pirate. His wife wrote a story about how they had this grand adventure and about a ghostly pirate ship." He let the duffle bag he was carrying thunk to the floor. "Believe it or not, it was adapted into a movie," he said absently. "Some kids' movie, if I remember right."
"Now I know you're being ridiculous. That was just a movie."
Harry didn't even look his way. "When the old leather-bound book surfaced at a family estate sale back in 1999, no one knew what to do with it. My sister Stephanie thought it would make a great kids' story. The guy she was dating at the time, talked her into going the movie route."
Frank slowly shook his head. "So you're telling me that the movie--the events in that movie actually happened?"
Harry sighed. "There's no way to verify anything. From research that I've done, I can't find a Governor Swann, or his daughter Elizabeth. And I've searched every pirate registry I can find but there's no listing of a Jack Sparrow. Either he wasn't as famous as he made out to be or someone erased him from the registry."
Frank blinked. "There's a pirate registry?"
Harry finally looked over at him. "Yes, there is." He gestured to the chest. "I don't know why this is here, though."
Frank felt silly for asking but he did it anyway. "This legendary treasure...what's the story about it?"
Harry straightened up and stared at the gold coins and loose gems. Carefully, he put the small ivory pegasus back on the pile. "The legend is merely that the treasure was found but rehidden for some reason--some secret the world at the time wasn't ready for."
Frank shook his head. "That makes no sense. A secret the world wasn't ready for?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know anymore than you do." He nodded to Jimmy. "Let's go."
Frank looked around at the house that seemed on the verge of falling completely apart. "You were talking earlier about this house, what was all that about?"
"I need to talk to Old Jack, but...I think your brother's in the past. I think he's having a little pirate adventure."
"And from out of which universe did you get that idea?" snapped Frank.
Harry gestured first to the house and then to the chest. "Things don't just appear out of thin air. An hour ago, this house was cleaned up and in good condition. For something like this to happen, would mean something in the past has changed. Possibly, by your brother being in the past."
Frank shook his head again. "How? How the hell did he get there?"
"The explosion ripped through time and space." Harry nodded to Jimmy. "Come on."
Frank looked up at the ceiling, remembering something that had happened only months ago. It didn't seem real now, more like a dream, that visit to the weird ship, the weird people. He took a deep breath. "So...you're talking time travel."
Harry nodded. "Yes."
Frank felt so torn, so confused. Time travel doesn't exist--but then what happened back in January? A shared dream or something more? His thoughts chased each other around his mind. If time travel was possible once, would that make it possible again? He looked over at Harry. "I want my brother back."
Harry nodded. "Then let's go."
Let the author know what you think of this story
Home Library Authors Rogue's Gallery Vehicles Chums Message Board Rap Sheet Links Contact
Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.